Description
Book SynopsisPuer tea has been grown for centuries in the "Six Great Tea Mountains" of Yunnan Province. In imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing.
Trade Review"An admirably coherent analysis of the complex social relationships that shaped the Pu'er market. . . . and a fine addition to the literature on the cultural biographies of commodities. . . . Recommended for the teaching of political economy, cultural economy, Chinese social transformation, and regional development studies."
* China Quarterly *
"A wealth of valuable information, both historical and anecdotal….should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the subject of Puer tea."
* Two Dog Tea Blog *
"This fine book has so much to tell us about the political economy of Puer tea over different periods of time and with links to Hong Kong, Taiwan and beyond…[I]nformative and well-written."
-- Tan Chee Beng * Australian Journal of Anthropology *
"[R]eflective of the deep socioeconomic and historical constructions of value in Puer tea shaped across many centuries, which Zhang captures in this intriguing monograph. Tracing the popularization of Puer tea in the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, from its rise, peak, and eventual crash in 2007, this book is an insightful examination of the world of Puer tea. . . . [T]his ethnography presents a unique contribution to those interested in commodities, exchange, authenticity, and symbolic value. . . . The strength of this book lies in is rich ethnographic detail, in terms of privileging (and problematizing) the voices of the many actors involved in Puer tea, in addition to providing rich visual material to illuminate the complicated processes of producing, cultivating, and marketing Puer tea."
-- Willa Zhen * Food, Culture and Society *
Table of ContentsForeword
Acknowledgments
Transliteration, Names, and Measures
Maps
Introduction
Spring
1. “The Authentic Tea Mountain Yiwu”
2. Tensions under the Bloom
Summer
3. “Yunnan: The Home of Puer Tea” 81
4. Heating Up and Cooling Down 106
Autumn
5. Puer Tea with Remorse
6. Transformed Qualities
Winter
7. Tea Tasting and Counter–Tea Tasting
8. Interactive Authenticities
Conclusion: An Alternative Authenticity
Appendix 1: Puer Tea Categories and Production Process
Appendix 2: Supplementary Videos
Notes
Glossary
References
Index
